The Employee Assistance Program recognizes that, as we prepare to come back together this fall, we will face many challenges. To help support the UT community through this transition and the range of emotions and uncertainties that come with it, the EAP counselors have created a series of videos and handouts to encourage the community to come together with understanding and compassion.
Here is our video and handout list:
- For Essential Workers: For essential workers who have been working on campus, this is also a period of adjustment as there are further changes in protocols and more density on campus. This video explores the unique stresses essential workers face and provides tips for managing stress as we come back together.
- We also recommend watching our Managing Emotions as an Essential Worker video; this video further supports the complicated emotions that accompany essential work and offers strategies to cope with them.
- Managing Employees as We Come Back Together: Managers have a lot on their plates and hold multiple priorities. They are concerned about the well-being of their employees; they are tasked to achieve the objectives of their departments; and they are also employees with their own concerns and stresses. They can feel caught in the middle, responsible for outcomes but may not feel they have a lot of control. This video describes actions leaders can take that are supported by the body of research on resilience and burnout to help employees while they are navigating uncertainty, change, fear and anxiety.
- Managing Anxiety as We Come Back Together: Many employees are experiencing increasing anxiety with the change and uncertainty of coming back to campus in fall of 2021. Whether this anxiety is a familiar pattern or a new experience from the pandemic, this video outlines the types of anxiety and some tips for grounding, coping, effectively addressing concerns, and setting up supportive patterns.
- Supporting Body Image While Coming Back Together: If you are concerned about changes to your body and appearance during the pandemic, you are not alone. This video honors the stress that our bodies went through during a global pandemic and provides tips for not increasing pressure to criticize our bodies or food choices.
- Eldercare Issues as We Come Back Together: The pandemic provided a much different environment for those of us who are caregivers at home, with both advantages (i.e. flexibility to meet care needs) and disadvantages (i.e. decreased work/care life balance). This video aims to help you maneuver the various changes in needs and capacity for care that accompany our changing landscape.
- Communication Skills for Coming Back Together: As we prepare to come back together, it is important that we do so while recognizing that we are doing so with different needs and difficulties that we need to adapt to accommodate. This video aims to give some advice on how to navigate increased barriers to communication (such as anxiety and negative outlook) with compassion and empathy.
- Post-Traumatic Growth in Challenging Times: Our UT community members have been living under the collective trauma of a pandemic since March of 2020. While this has been a time of grief and uncertainty, we can also look at research on post-traumatic growth to reflect on our values as a way to guide growth in the days ahead.
- Navigating Uncertainty and Change as We Come Back Together: This video and handout normalize the emotions of anxiety and fear that might be arising as the pandemic continues to unfold and we prepare for coming back together during the Fall of 2021. It highlights tiny practices and ways to support our nervous system in navigating uncertainty and change.
- For Parents as We Come Back Together: This video speaks to some of the current challenges that parents face in preparing to go into fall of 2021, including some pointers on gathering support and making decisions.
- Long COVID and Long Haulers: This video is about Long-COVID and the “long haulers" who are experiencing extended COVID-19 symptoms. In this video, you will learn about the mental health impacts of long-haul illness and strategies you can employ for yourself and for loved ones to help mitigate the depression and isolation that many may experience when suffering from COVID-19.
Please join us in supporting our fellow members of the UT community as we navigate this transition together. The EAP counselors are also here for one-on-one counseling sessions for those who are in need of support. Set up an appointment by calling us at (512)471-3366 or emailing eap@austin.utexas.edu.